Peroxynitrite Activatable NIR-II Fluorescent Molecular Probe for Drug-Induced Hepatotoxicity Monitoring

Drug-induced hepatotoxicity represents an important challenge for safety in drug development. The production of peroxynitrite (ONOO^-) is proposed as an early sign in the progression of drug-induced hepatotoxicity. Currently, reported ONOO^- probes mainly emit in the visible range or the first NIR window, which have limited in vivo biosensing application due to the autofluorescence and photon scattering. Herein, we developed a peroxynitrite activatable second near-infrared window (NIR-II) molecular probe for drug-induced hepatotoxicity monitoring, based on the fusion of an NIR-II fluorescence turn-on benzothiopyrylium cyanines skeleton and the phenyl borate. In the presence of ONOO^-, the probe IRBTP-B can turn on its NIR-II fluorescence by yielding its fluorophore IRBTP-O and display good linear response to ONOO^-. Tissue phantom study confirmed reliable activated signals could be acquired at a penetration depth up to 5 mm. Using this probe, we disclose the upregulation of ONOO^- in a preclinical drug-induced liver injury model and the remediation with N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) in vivo. We expect that this strategy will serve as a general method for the development of an activatable NIR-II probe based on the hydroxyl functionalized reactive sites by analyte-specific triggering.